Because what IS Christmas without stag beetles and roadkill? A sweet, magical, creepy interlude from Wladislaw Starewicz — perfect for zoning out to as you loosen your post-prandial belt. There is something festive about this guy, mainly because his films always look ancient, no matter what good condition you see them in. I’ve seen 1920s films that looked like they were made yesterday, so good was the restoration, but Starewicz, from the beginning to the end of his career, worked in an ancient, fizzy-facky world which communicates with our own only by ribbons of crumbling celluloid, twining through the Olderness to reach silver nitrate fingers into our semi-slumbering brains.
More wintry madness —
And, maybe best of all —
From Saint Nick to Old Nick — it’s a slippery slope.
Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth.
This is from PEACE ON EARTH, made ironically in 1939, which the last man on Earth falls to the bullet of the second-last man on Earth, right after fatally plugging said penultimate fellow, and the planet is inherited by the anthropomorphic, cel-animated woodland creatures, who build villages out of the discarded tin helmets of the dead. Finding a discarded Bible, they learn to read it via the wise old owl, and their simple hand-drawn 12fps brains embrace the mottos within. “Goodwill to men — but what are men?” ask the baby squirrels, too young to have seen a real man in the wild.
It’s a powerful message — maybe, when all that’s left of us is our painted squirrels, we will know peace.
shadowplay 